Hoozits: I can understand fatigue settling in from a personal standpoint. I'm certainly subpar when tired or otherwise not in top mental form. This game has inspired me somewhat to take steps to keep in better physical shape so as to be better prepared for the mental battles that lie ahead.

maxi: This game gives no evidence about about Fine's good qualities. It just shows an Alekhine playing completely subpar. He must have been exhausted. Capablanca also mentions the playing conditions of the tournament were not the best. Young people recover faster from fatigue.

RookFile: There was one remote chance: the queen's rook pawn becoming passed. A rook pawn is the hardest for the knight to stop: often it has tremendous power. Of course, Fine was well aware of this possibility, and Alekhine had to resign.

maxi: Yes, the straightforward way of winning is the one Fine took, to take the King to the probable enemy passed pawn. Then White plays for a rupture on the Queen side to clarify. If all Pawns there are exchanged he is then three Pawns up. Otherwise, if each side keeps a Pawn, then he advances it and it is over.

Fred Flinstone was a chess player? He must have used one of those marble sets.

Sem: This defeat must have rattled Alekhine, especially because after his victory at Bern 1932 he had felt it necessary to remark: 'Ich habe es den Juden wieder mal gezeigt' ('I've shown it to the Jews again'). The source of this quote is Max Euwe, man beyond reproach, in his anecdotal book 'Mr Caissa'.

Sem: Whiteshark, had he used the singular, he would have said: 'Ich habe es DEM Juden wieder mal gezeigt.' (How priggish of me). But thanks for drawing my attention to the postings; I was unfamiliar with Alekhine's comment at the concluding banquet.

tpstar: <I wonder why he hung around so long in a hopeless position> Agreed. As of 32. Rxh7 Black has zero swindling chances and no real play or plan. The final position reflects badly on Black, tired or not.

Gambit All: 22...Ra8 is horrible. Concedes the F file and loses the game. It seems to me that 22...♘ g7 and trying for a general exchange of pieces on the F file would have been better. Fine takes control of the file, grabs some pawns, simplifies without resistance, and waits for Alekhine's resignation. A solid game from Fine - completely unphased by playing the World Champion; but, quite a lifeless game by Alekhine.

perfidious: Black's position at his 22nd move is such that he will have to give way on one wing or the other, with the weakness of the queenside pawns plus f7. His only semi-active piece is the king, which can't hold everything.

aliejin: As explained Resevski, The AVRO tournament of 1938
had the particularity to be played in different cities in the Netherlands
(All the time traveling between each round) What physically affected
players, older players hurting, and so benefited, the
younger

Bob Loblaw: Jul-27-08
<maxi: This game gives no evidence about about Fine's good qualities. It just shows an Alekhine playing completely subpar. He must have been exhausted. Capablanca also mentions the playing conditions of the tournament were not the best. Young people recover faster from fatigue.>
Kasparov, who annotates this game in Volume 4 of "On My Great Predecessors," does not agree, calling the game "an impressive rout." He has high praise for Fine's play throughout. According to Kasparov 20 ... Nh5? is the decisive mistake.

plang: After an incredible 5.5-0.5 start Fine lost to Keres in the 7th round followed shortly by two more losses; this win in the 13th (next to last) round enabled Fine to tie for 1st with Keres.

Quote from Fine:
"...Alekhine did not shine...; against the top three he scored 1.5 out of 6.
The reason was that a certain rigidity had crept into his play with the passage of time. Perhaps he unconsciously thought of himself as the Russian nobleman who could order the peasants to do his bidding. For personal reasons, as I have shown elsewhere (in a monograph on the psychology of chess), he overestimated the aggression of the younger men, and feared it too much. This made him a poor defensive player, a fact which I was able to turn to good advantage in the following (this) game."

8 dxe is considered to be relatively harmless; 8 Re1 and 8 d5 avoiding simplification are more ambitious alternatives. 9..Bxa4? 10 Qxa4+..b5 11 Nxf7! would have been bad for Black. 10 f4 was an improvement on the previously played 10 Be3. Fine claimed to be already winning at this point but that conclusion is clearly premature. With 11..Qd7? Alekhine misjudged how awkwardly placed his king would be in the center; Short gives 11..b5 12 Qb3..exf 13 Bxf4..Nf6 14 Nd2..0-0 15 Rae1..Qe7 with chances for both sides. 18..Ke5?! worked out poorly; at Stara Pazova 1988 Kovacevic played 18..Nf6 against Tringov and drew. 19..g5 20 Rf5+..Kxe4 21 g4 would have puy Black in a pretty mating net. Perhaps Alekhine underestimated 20 Nd2! expecting 20 a5..Nxe4 21 axb..cxb 22 Rxa6..f5 23 Rxb6..Rb8! with equality. both 20..Nd7 and 20..Ke6 would have been preferable to Alekhine's decentralizing 20..Nh5?. Fine's play on both sides of the board with 22 a5! and 23 Raf1! was quite masterful. Short showed the path to victory after the alternative 26..f6: 27 Nxh7..Rd6 28 e5!..fxe 29 Rf7+..Ke6 30 Ng5+..Kd5 31 Rc7..Rc6 32 Rd1+..Kc5 33 Ne4+..Kb5 34 c4+ and wins.

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